How Obama (Accidentally) Reduced The Crime Rate

He didn't mean to do this, really he didn't: How Obama Reduced Crime Rates Last Year...

White House Panicking Over Sarah Palin's Popularity

You want proof? Here it is. Organizing For America (OFA) is Barack Obama's perpetual propaganda mechanism, and they sent out hundreds of thousands of the email announcement reproduced in the image here (click to enlarge). You have to ask yourself: If Palin is really the insignificant, petty, unqualified amateur that the Left claims she is, then why are Democrats and Leftists working so damned hard to discredit her? They'll tell you she's an idiot. If so, why do they feel the need to attack her? RELATED: Liberal left is afraid of Palin Be Afraid of Palin Daily Kos: Are the Democrats really afraid of Palin? Video: Why are the liberals afraid of Palin? O'Reilly & Colmes ... MSNBC attacks young Palin Supporter : Western Journalism.com Leave a Comment Conservative T-Shirts We're on Twitter RSS Feed

Ready to Storm Obama's Playing Field

There was much made - and is still being made - of Barack Obama's links to Muslims and Islamic entities during the recent presidential election. Some people were/are concerned with his father's Muslim beliefs. Some were/are concerned with his history in Pakistan. All were/are still concerned about the huge amounts of donations from foreign nationals in Muslim nations. The Bench also wrote about some of Obama's connections to Islam, but strove to do so in a way that examined facts, not conjecture or rumor. The Bench passed on a number of "stories" that readers sent to us, because after we cross checked them we found that they were false myth or perilously devoid of hard facts. Then there were those driven by anti-Muslim bigotry, and while The Bench does not run from calling an Islamic terrorist an "Islamic terrorist," we also acknowledge that the vast majority of Muslims are not terrorists. Five weeks after Obama won the election, The Bench still gets such letters. The Internet still throbs with such items. Let us stress that bigotry against Barack Obama for any past or present Muslim influence in his personal life is no more acceptable than the hateful bigotry thrown at Republican contender Mitt Romney. Romney, a Mormon from a long line of Mormons, was savaged by bigots in both the Democrat Party as well as his own. Perhaps one day we can judge a person by the content of his character and not by the flavor of his religious beliefs. (That said, I confess that I would be a bit nervous about a candidate for any office who was known to be a Satanist.) A recent letter came to The Bench, in which the well-meaning author expressed concern about Obama's intention to deliver a major speech in the capital of "a Muslim nation" shortly after his upcoming inauguration. That, the reader wrote, as well as his Muslim campaign donors, is supposed to be a signal that Obama is really some kind of stealth Islamist. She stopped short of speculating that Obama owns a closet full of suicide bomber belts, but she might as well have written that, too. My response to her, and my advice to people who are still all worked up about Obama's Muslim ties, follows: Dear Reader: As for Obama and the Muslims: First, take a deep breath, hold it for ten seconds, then... let ... it ... out slowly. Now then, let me play Devil's advocate: Proceed with caution on this, because we do not know absolutely that he is a Muslim. In fact, overwhelming evidence is that he's not a Muslim. Think about it: The drug use years ago. The way Michelle dresses (like an average Western woman). The fact that he does not bow down five times daily to pray or attend mosque services as a worshipper. For argument's sake, let's agree that he was born to a Muslim father. So what? My dad was Jewish, my mother was non-denominational Protestant. I grew up agnostic but converted to Christianity after a personal epiphany, but have never prayed in a church. I pray at the beach or under a tree or wherever I want (because God hears all, everywhere, anytime). What does that mean? It means nothing, and it means everything: We are all unique, and one of the great things about the US, and the West in general, is freedom of choice and freedom from familial bondage to any particular religion or set of customs. So, is Barack Obama secretly Muslim? Only he knows, but I seriously doubt it. If he's some kind of sleeper agent or Manchurian candidate, well, we can't know that yet. In the meantime, I have to go with the overwhelming evidence (of his actions) that he is not Muslim. Is he sympathetic to the Muslims? No doubt he is. Is that, in and of itself, a bad thing? It depends upon the degree to which he sympathizes with them. Does he have the right to feel an affinity for Muslims? Yes. Does he have a right to make a speech in any city he chooses? Yes, he does, and I think the reason that he is making an announcement in "an Islamic capital" is that the subject of his speech will relate directly to Muslim and/or Arab concerns and affairs. That should not be suspicious, necessarily. We are, after all, engaged in friendly diplomatic relations with many of the Arab nations. We have invaded two Muslim nations recently. We import a huge portion of our petroleum from that region. We need to strengthen relations with them, not by appeasing, but through mutual cooperation in matters of security and military coordination, as well as a broad range of mutual concerns with all things economic. I could go on and on, but I think you see where I'm going with all of this. Just because he has Muslim contributors is not necessarily an indictment of his character or intentions, either. Any candidate who runs an election campaign for any office higher than dog catcher is likely to receive contributions from unsavory characters or controversial entities. I guarantee you that every Republican got contributions from neo-Nazis or Klan members. Does that make the Republican politicians Nazis or Klansmen? Of course not. Pedophiles, litterers, jaywalkers and all kinds of people donate to both parties. So, a large number of Muslims donated to Obama. What does that mean, really, except that they are anti-White, anti-Western and/or see Obama as somebody who might take us in a direction more favorable to Muslim countries. That, by the way, does not necessitate an anti-Israel stance. We cannot assume, and we cannot know, how many of the tens of thousand of Muslims who donated to Obama's campaigns (IL Senate, US Senate, President) are disloyal Americans or in favor of driving Israel into the sea, or may be terrorist sympathizers. My guess (and there is no way for anybody to measure this) is that the vast majority of them are average people who donated to a particular candidate (Obama, in this case) for average reasons: Ethnicity, their personal religious orientation, liberal political orientation, socio-economic history and status, and on and on and on. Let's sit back and enjoy the show. We, you and I, are spectators for the moment. Let's let the referees on the field officiate the game. If there is foul play down there, we trust that the referees will throw a flag down and issue the appropriate penalties. Like British soccer fans, however, we hold in reserve the option of storming the field if the referees don't do their job. RELATED: Obama Mulls Speech in Muslim Capital (The Washington Independent) Obama Reveals Plans To Reach Out To Muslim World (Huffington Post) Right Truth: Obama's World Apology Tour (RightTruth) Plans major speech in Muslim capital to 'reboot' America's image (WorldNet Daily) Here comes the Great Man complex (American Thinker) A Cairo speech? (Politico)

Email From Liberal Demonstrates Dementia, Paranoia

Paranoia, fear, loathing, envy. That pretty much sums up the raw hatred that so many Liberals have for Wal-Mart. It’s a company that employs millions, gives away more to charity than some nations have in their entire treasuries, but is nevertheless loathed by millions. I recognize that there are some valid reasons to dislike Wal-Mart, but no valid reasons to hate it. This morning, I received a bizarre email from an uber-Liberal this morning. It contains a childish list of statements about Wal-Mart, presented as fact with no sources of information listed. All of the statements are inaccurate in some way. The statements are apparently taken as fact, at face value, by the uber-Liberal who wrote it, and by the uber-Liberal who forwarded it to me in an email blast. I won't reveal her name, but I will say that she works at a very prestigious university in Evanston, Illinois. Her email, below, seems to be something that she received in an email or found on the web and decided to pass it on. The subject line, "HOW BIG IS WAL-MART?" contains at least two red flags. First, the word "BIG" is surely meant to be taken as "bad" (why do Liberals hate big business, but love big government?). Second, "WAL-MART" is Satan in the opinion of many Liberals. Let's look at the crazy email. I will inject my own remarks along the way. -----Inline Attachment Follows----- This should boggle your mind!! And scare you as well! HOW BIG IS WAL-MART? 1) At Wal-Mart, Americans spend $36,000,000 every hour of every day. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute! BENCH: If your mind is not yet boggled, consider this: There are 1,440 minutes in a full day. 36,000,000 divided by 1,440 equals 25,000. Sure, that’s even more than the author of this idiotic list claimed, but right away we’ve got a signal that the facts are not very accurate. This begs the question: Are you scared yet? If so, why does a magnificent profit scare you? 2) Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year. BENCH: “Will sell” sounds like someone has a crystal ball. Perhaps Wal-Mart sold that much more than Target in the first quarter of a past year, but how could the author know what future sales numbers will be? Furthermore, selling “more” does not necessarily mean that “more” profit will be taken. Target’s pricing is different than Wal-Mart’s. Again, the question: Are you scared yet? If so, why does the fact that some businesses outperform others scare you? Imagine two coffee shops on the same block, and you’re told that one “sold more” cups of coffee than the other. Would you ask why that was so? Would you ask how much each charges for their cups of coffee? These are important considerations, apparently not taken by the author. 3) Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target + Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined. BENCH: Yokay, but so what? The author childishly uses “bigger” as a pejorative. The author does not qualify what “bigger” means in this context. Bigger in terms of gross sales, gross profit, net sales, net profit, payroll, amount of taxes paid, amount of real estate owned, square footage of retail outlets? Bigger how? Again, the question: Are you scared yet? If so, why does the fact that a particular business is “bigger” than several of its competitors? Imagine a 7-Eleven that is across the street from a large and popular restaurant. Both sell sandwiches, but the restaurant sells four times as many as the 7-Eleven, occupies a larger space, employs many more people, and so on. It’s “bigger.” Does that make the restaurant bad? 4) Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest private employer. And most can't speak English. BENCH: Actually, Wal-Mart has 2.1 million employees (another indicator of how inaccurate this list is). One of today’s headlines is this, from AP (Dec. 5, 2008): “Employers cut 533K jobs in Nov., most in 34 years.” Aren’t Liberals, like other Americans, concerned about rising unemployment? Yes? So how, then, is employing 2.1 million people a bad thing? Does the author of this list have some issue with people who don’t speak English? Wal-Mart currently has 620,000 "International Associates," which is one third of the total 2.1 million employees. (2.1 million minus 620,000 equals 1.48 million, so again the author's "facts" are way off.) Apparently so, but don’t Liberals claim to be more compassionate about non-English speakers? The author doesn’t indicate, however, where those employees are located. Could “most” of the Wal-Mart employees be manufacturing merchandise for Wal-Mart overseas, in non-English speaking countries? I don’t know, but if the author knows he/she is withholding the information. 5) Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the World. BENCH: Yes, at the moment. But before Wal-Mart got there, somebody else was “the largest company in the history of the World,” and somebody else before, and so on. Sooner or later, some other company will become “the largest company in the history of the World.” In fact, it may happen soon. The Wall Street Journal reported on October 3, 2007 that “Wal-Mart’s influence over the retail universe is slipping. In fact, the industry’s titan is scrambling to keep up with swifter rivals that are redefining the business all around it.” 6) Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger & Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only 15 years. BENCH: I must be missing something here. Is selling a lot of food a bad thing? As for saying that Wal-Mart “did this in only 15 years,” we have another red flag. According to Wal-Mart, the company began in 1962, when founder Sam Walton opened the company’s first discount store in Rogers, Arkansas. Correct me if I’m wrong, but 15 years after 1962 would be 1977. Uhm, that was nearly 32 years ago. Where did the author come up with the 15 year info? 7) During this same period, 31 Supermarket chains sought bankruptcy (including Winn-Dixie). BENCH: What period is that? The author gives no dates. The author implies that Wal-Mart drove Winn-Dixie into bankruptcy, but in fact that is not true. Karen Brune Mathis of the The Times-Union wrote an excellent article on October 13, 2007 about the Winn-Dixie bankruptcy. Mathis wrote that “Winn-Dixie spent 21 months in bankruptcy reorganization, filing in February 2005 and emerging in November 2006.” She also noted that “long dominant Winn-Dixie watched service-oriented Publix Super Markets displace it as the top grocer in the area in 2000. In 2006, price-focused Wal-Mart took second place, pushing Winn-Dixie to No. 3.” Does that sound like Wal-Mart suddenly jumped up and cut the head off of Winn-Dixie? Mathis quotes Holly Felder Etlin , one of the turnaround advisers who helped Winn-Dixie reorganize and regroup as saying the main causes of Winn-Dixie’s demise were “the company's focus on cutting costs while not keeping the stores up to date, not focusing enough on new products and facing a bloated cost structure.” (I doubt that Wal-Mart had anything to do with Winn-Dixie’s own mismanagement.) 8) Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world. BENCH: This is essentially a repeat of #6 above. 9) Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are SuperCenters; this is 1,000 more than it had 5 years ago. BENCH: Another inaccuracy: “Today, 7,390 Wal-Mart stores and Sam’s Club locations in 14 markets employ more than 2 million associates, serving more than 200 million customers per year.” (Source) 10) This year, 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at a Wal-Mart store. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 billion.) BENCH: So what? 7.2 billion divided by 200 million equals 36. That means that each of those 200 million customers had an average of 36 “purchasing experiences” per year. That’s three visits per month. I hit my local 7-Eleven three times a day, often enough. This figure means nothing unless you’re unable to look at big numbers, break them down, and realize that there is nothing out of the ordinary going on. 11) 90% of all Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart. BENCH: So what? 90% of all Chicagoans live within 15 miles of City Hall. Does that make City Hall bad? Of course not. Temptation, greed and callous disregard make City Hall bad. 12) Let Wal-Mart bail out Wall Street. BENCH: Why? Did Wal-Mart cause the meltdown of Wall Street? What did Wal-Mart have to do with the gross mismanagement and corruption at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Wal-Mart may be doing well, but I hardly think they have over $700 billion to give away. Speaking of giving money away, Wal-Mart gives away more money to charitable causes than most companies do. For example, “Wal-Mart’s support is helping the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc. break ground for the national memorial dedicated to the civil rights leader by providing a $12.5 million letter of credit from the Wal-Mart Foundation.” That’s just a tiny fraction of their charitable giving. So, let’s summarize the Wal-Mart list, point by point: 1) Americans love to shop at Wal-Mart. 2) Americans love to shop at Wal-Mart. 3) Americans love to shop at Wal-Mart. 4) Millions of Americans have jobs, thanks to Wal-Mart. 5) Americans love to shop at Wal-Mart, so much so that it’s now the largest company in the world. 6) Americans love to shop at Wal-Mart. 7) Some companies are not as well as Wal-Mart. 8) See #6. 9) Wal-Mart has been expanding rapidly because Americans love to shop at Wal-Mart. 10) The average Wal-Mart shopper shops at a Wal-Mart three times per month. 11) Wal-Mart is conveniently located within a short drive of 90% of all Americans. 12) Liberals think Wal-Mart somehow caused the current bad economic climate. My favorite part of the entire email is the last item. Note that today is December 5, 2008. Vice President Dick Cheney will leave office in just a few weeks, on January 20. Yet, at the bottom of the uber-Liberal’s email is this link, urging the impeachment of Cheney. Vote in the National Cheney Impeachment Poll http://www.usalone.com/blogvoices.php?Cheney%20Impeachment%3F (WARNING! Follow that link at your own risk! I did, it seems suspicious. Don’t follow the link unless you are confident that you have a good firewall and a very good anti-spyware and anti-virus program running!) RELATED: http://money.howstuffworks.com/wal-mart.htm Why I Love Wal-Mart and You Should Too - Associated Content YouTube - P&T Bullshit Wal-Mart Hatred Part 1 American Thinker Blog: Wal-Mart hatred on display in LA Times The Wal-Mart hatred bandwagon is a load of crap... (cuss words!) From the Wal-Mart corporate site: Wal-Mart's charitble giving Wal-Mart's disaster relief Wal-Mart's international operations Wal-Mart's employment and diversity

Nothing to Fear but (Gasp!) Moore Himself

"DON GORDON WANTS TO DENY POLICE THE TOOLS THEY NEED TO FIGHT CRIME," reads the frantic and scary headline on one of Joe Moore's aldermanic campaign tree corpses.

My friend Barry recently chided me for "spreading fear" when I said that there are criminals within the Section 8 community. Jeez o' Pete, man, there are criminals within every community, whether rich, poor, black, white, tall, short. But Barry didn't like the truth when he heard it, so he countered by accusing me of spreading fear.

Barry, would you please tell the Moore people to stop spreading fear? The flier headline above is obviously intended to scare people, Barry. You scare people how? By spreading fear! YES! I see a glint of comprehension in your eyes! Stay with me now, Barry, stay with me.

Taken literally, as Moore wants us to, an ignorant/stupid person might believe that Don Gordon would take away guns, squad cars, bullet-resistant vests, two-way radios, computers, handcuffs, bullets, night sticks, and coffee from the police. You'll notice that the headline did not say that Gordon wants to take away "some of the tools." It screamed "the tools," purposefully implying all tools. Shameful.

Moore is spreading fear!

DON GORDON GOT REPUBLICAN MONEY!
Oh my God! The Republicans will eat our children!

It wasn't that long ago that Joe Moore's campaign was telling people that Jim Ginderske was a Republican who wanted to get rid of all the black people in Rogers Park.

That lie was obviously meant to scare people. To spread fear. And now they're trying to pull the same crap on Don Gordon.

Hey, I'm a moderate conservative and I can tell you this: I've spoken with Don Gordon enough to know that the man is no Republican. Whoa. No way. But here again is a case of Joe Moore lying, in a way intended to scare people.

I woke up this morning with a chuckle. My alarm clock radio awakened my to a Joe Moore interview on WLS AM (890).

The reporter asked Moore why he was running city-wide television commercials, and whether this indicated "desperation" on Moore's part.

Moore explained to the reporter that he wanted everyone to know that Don Gordon got a donation from a man who has also donated to (gasp!) REPUBLICANS! Lock the doors!

The reporter calmly responded, "So?"

There was a long, long pause. Dead air. Joe's brain spinning around. Finally, he responded.

"Well we want Rogers Park to know that Republicans are trying to take over the businesses!"

I had to wipe my eyes, I was laughing so hard. My first thought was that Moore was lying, that Gordon is no Republican, and that the business climate in the 49th Ward couldn't possibly be any worse off if so-called Republicans did "take over." How well has the business community done under Joe Moore's "progressive" authority?

How many of your friends and neighbors actually work in the 49th Ward? I'll bet that most or all of your friends work outside the ward. There are not many good opportunities here, in spite of another of Moore's lies that "everywhere you look" there's a new cafe or some other business opening. Hello? What dimensional plane is Joe Moore living on?

So sleep with the lights out, Barry, it is not my fear mongering you need to worry about. It's your friends in the Moore campaign who are spreading fear. You can feel good about that.